Spent the day cleaning and lubing my Quantum spinning and conventional reels.

The reels have held up great after 2 years of charters with a few small problems that could have been prevented with better maintenance.

The conventional CLW30's only problem was the handel getting stuck on the shaft. On my new ones I am going to remove the handel and put a light layer of grease on the shaft. I also had some screws on the end plates give me some problem and greased them before re-installing them. If you own this reel remove the handle and grease it along with the screws.

The Spinning reels I have are the Cabo PT40's and 60's along with some Boca 60's. The only problem on these were the line roller bearing. I plan on cleaning this better during the season along with removing the new ones and oiling them before using. The spinning reels have a plastic cap on the back end that fell off 2 of the reels leaving 2 .125 diameter holes that water could enter the gear housing thru so I ran a 8-32 tap in the hole and screwed a SS set screw in the hole with some locktite on them.

Quantum would not sell me the cap... They said to return it for replacement but they were over a year old.

I have used many brand of mid priced spinning reels and most have a plastic side plate on that houses one of the bearings. The Quantum uses a cast Aluminum side plate. I love the smoothness of the drags and how they hold up to salt. The additional cost is worth it considering that they should get thru another season (3rd) when other brands that I have used and don't want to bash were junk after 1 season....

I wish Quantum would make a frame bigger than the 30-40's and small than the 50-60's

I want to try the Daiwa spinning reels. Do they have a metal side plate? If somebody could recommend a high end but not a Van Stallish model it would be appreciated.
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I just picked up 2 Quantum Boca PT 40's and boy am I happy. Spent Yesterday hauling in bluefish after bluefish and what a blast it was.

Of the 3 times I've bought reels, they have always bought Penn 6500's, mostly because they are dependable, parts are easily available, and they are decent reels, however, compared the the Boca, they just are not as good.

I won't go on and on about the features and how and why it is a better reel, just to say that the new Boca is awesom, I don't even want to use my 6500's anymore.

I got a Boca ptinshore rod as well, expensive to me at $100, and I bought two outfits, but I've been using such heavy and thick rods for so long that using the still 7 foot rod, but in a nicely tuned package, the rod bent over so gracefully all the while still having the guts to get the blues back where I wanted them.

All in all, for around $230 per combo, it was a lot for me but I'll not go back to any of the 6 6500 combos I have, they will now be forever guest-rods while the Boca set ups are for me.